Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Tony Rivers (Michael Landon), a troubled teenager at Rockdale High, is known for losing his temper and overreacting. A campus fight between Tony and classmate Jimmy (Tony Marshall) gets the attention of the local police, Det. Donovan (Barney Phillips) in particular. Donovan breaks up the fight and advises Tony to talk with a “psychologist” that works at the local aircraft plant, Dr. Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell), a practitioner of hypnotherapy.

Tony declines, but his girlfriend Arlene (Yvonne Lime), as well as his widowed father (Malcolm Atterbury), show concern about his violent behavior. Later, at a Halloween party at the "haunted house", an old house at which several of the teenagers hang out, Tony attacks his friend Vic (Kenny Miller) after being surprised from behind. After seeing the shocked expressions on his friends’s faces, he realizes he needs help and goes to see Dr. Brandon.
On Tony’s first visit, however, Brandon makes it clear that he has his own agenda while the teenager lies on the psychiatrist’s couch: Tony will be an excellent subject for his experiments with a scopolamine serum he’s developed that regresses personalities to their primitive instincts. Brandon believes that the only future mankind has is to "hurl him back to his primitive state." Although Brandon's assistant, Dr. Hugo Wagner (Joseph Mell), protests that the experiment might kill Tony, Brandon continues and within two sessions suggests to Tony that he was once a werewolf.

That night, after a small party at the haunted house, Tony drives Arlene home; and one of their buddies, Frank (Michael Rougas), is attacked and killed as he is walking home through the woods. While Donovan and Police Chief Baker (Robert Griffin) review photographs of the victim and await an autopsy, Pepi (Vladimir Sokoloff), the police station's janitor, persuades officer Chris Stanley (Guy Williams) to let him see the photos. Pepi, a native of the Carpathian Mountains, where werewolves, “human beings possessed by wolves”, are common, immediately recognizes the marks on Frank's body, much to the disbelief of Chris, who balks at the idea of a werewolf.

The next day, after another session with Brandon, during which Tony tells the doctor that he feels that there is something very wrong with him, Tony reports to Miss Ferguson (Louise Lewis), the principal of Rockdale High. Miss Ferguson tells Tony that she is pleased with him; Brandon has given him a positive report regarding his behavior; and that she intends to recommend Tony for entry into State College. As Tony leaves the principal's office happy with the good news, he passes the gymnasium where Theresa (Dawn Richard) is practicing by herself. A school bell behind his head suddenly rings, triggering his transformation into a werewolf, and he attacks and kills Theresa. Tony flees the high school and, despite the changes in his facial appearance, witnesses identify him by his clothing, causing Baker to issue an all-points bulletin for his arrest.

A local reporter, Doyle (Eddie Marr), interviews Tony's father, as well as Arlene and her parents, in the hope of locating Tony and getting a scoop. Baker and Donovan attempt to trap Tony in the woods where they think he may be hiding. Still in the form of a werewolf, Tony watches as the dragnet looks for him, but is surprised by a dog and ends up killing it.

In the morning, Tony awakens and sees he has reverted to his normal appearance and walks into the town. After phoning Arlene (who answers, but refuses to tell the police who is on the line), Tony heads to Brandon's office and begs for his help. Brandon wants to witness Tony's transformation, and capture it on film in order to advance himself in the scientific community. Brandon tells Tony he will help him and after telling him to lie on the couch, injects him with the serum again. Immediately following the transformation, a nearby ringing telephone triggers Tony's instincts and he leaps up---and kills both Brandon and Wagner---breaking open the film camera in the process, ruining the film. Alerted that Tony has been seen nearby, Donovan and Chris break in and are forced to shoot several times as Tony advances toward them. Upon dying, Tony’s normal features return, leaving Donovan to speculate on Brandon's involvement – and on the mistake of man interfering in the realms of God.

Information

The film became the first to have the word "teenage" in the title.

Watch for an appearance by Malcolm Atterbury, the dad from High School Big Shot as Tony's similarly depressing dad.

Scopolomine is primarily used to treat motion sickness and post-operative nausea and vomiting.

Dawn Richard, who plays a teenaged gymnast in the film, was actually a 22-year-old Playboy centerfold model at the time, appearing in the magazine’s May 1957 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple months ahead of the movie.

The Episode

Host Segments

Servo with a facehugger stuck to his face

Prologue: While Mike buffs Gypsy, Tom Servo tries to throw a mutiny. No one else wants to be captain, so Mike ends up being captain again.

Segment 1: The Satellite of Love crew find Pearl, Professor Bobo, and Brain Guy on a nice Camping Planet. Bobo and Brain Guy help Pearl carry stuff; Bobo has to carry a bit more. The Satellite is now on auxiliary power, and has no shields. Tom goes out to inspect a disturbance on the ship, and when he comes back, there's a Facehugger clinging to his bubble.

Segment 2:Crow uses his brand new proximity-detector to check for more aliens. He finds out there are aliens everywhere! At least until he realizes he was actually measuring the humidity.

Segment 3: Tom gets rid of his face-hugger and grabs his guns and weaponry from his 500 years of roaming the universe. Servo enters the duct work to dispense with the aliens. Mike and Crow takes bets on when Servo will breakdown and cry. Tom gets stuck and, after a few seconds of nervous singing, starts sobbing; Crow wins the bet.

Segment 4: The crew finds a batch of alien eggs on the bridge, so Mike makes some alien egg omelets. Crow picks a weird time to become a food critic.

Final Segment: The ship continues to lose power as the alien drains the energy. They decide to find something that will repulse it; the only choice is for Mike to dress up as Adam Duritz. The alien flees in terror. On the planet, Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy enjoy a campfire and taunt the SOL crew with a ghost story. She proceeds to scare the crap out of Bobo and Brain Guy almost too easily.

Callbacks

Running Jokes

Tony's Dairy-Throwing Antics.

Various riffs about Tony being a werewolf/dog, before the transformation.

Not a running gag in the episode itself, but Servo makes the quip: 'You get a lot of dirt with werewolf, you get a lot of clean with Tide.' It would later be used in Season 9 in the next werewolf movie...Werewolf

Constant references to Landon's later roles on Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway To Heaven.

Incorporating lines from the song "Werewolves of London."

Servo: "You are not drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s, young man, you’re just not old enough"

Obscure References

Promotional still for I Was a Teenage Werewolf

"I picked a little fight"

Paraphrase of the lyrics to the theme song from the TV show Bonanza (in which Michael Landon co-starred). The final verse from the pilot episode started off "We got a right to pick a little fight--Bonanza".

"Dad played by H.L. Mencken." "Jabba the husband!"

H.L. Mencken was an influential writer and social critic who was famous for his writings on 'The Scopes' Monkey Trial.' He was fictionally portrayed as E. K. Hornbeck in Inherit The Wind.

From the Hitler Youth song in the stage musical and feature film, Cabaret.

"Counselor? Come out, come out, where ever you are!"

Reference to the character Max Cady played by Robert De Niro in Cape Fear

"And what of the lambs, Clarice? What of the lambs?"

Reference to the novel and subsequent film The Silence of the Lambs.

"A werewolf like that who'd kill your brother..."

Reference to the song "A Boy Like That" from the musical West Side Story.

"And get Mark Fuhrman on the case!"

Mark Fuhrman was the Los Angeles homicide detective on the O.J. Simpson murder case. His impartiality came under suspicion when it was revealed that he had openly expressed bigoted attitudes (including using racial slurs) towards people with dark skin.

"The bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells! The tintinnabulation of the bells!"

Part of the poem "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe.

"I think Nellie Olsen is behind this!"

Nellie Olsen was a character from the book and TV show Little House on the Prairie (in which Michael Landon co-starred).

Memorable Quotes

[As Michael Landon's name appears in the opening credits]

Mike: [singing to the Bonanza theme] We got a film, and it's starring Michael Landon...

[A crowd of "teens" watch the fight]

Mike: And the 35-year-old high school students look on.

[Tony, played by Michael Landon, has just punched someone. His friends look on in shock]

Mike [as Tony]: But I thought I had a right to pick a little fight, Bonanza.

[Tony takes Arlene home in his sweet ride of a 1950s convertible.]

Crow: If I were a bug, I'd be proud to smash into that grill. Yep.

[Leaving the party, first victim Frank walks home through the woods.]

Mike [as Frank]: [muttering] "I'm okay. I don't need a ride." What was I thinking? It's like 47 miles!